New bloodmobile results from a model project

Thursday

Multi-agency partnership provided model and inspiration for passage of SB 242 and "Pay for Success" contracts

The Blood Bank of Delmarva’s new bloodmobile both helps save lives, and serves as a model for a new style of community project funding.

Last week, On Thursday, Aug. 29, Discover Bank, BBD, the Longwood Foundation, and the Delaware Community Foundation held an official ribbon cutting of a brand new Bloodmobile.

The new bloodmobile also made its Sussex County debut earlier this week, arriving at Big Oyster Brewery on Tuesday, Sept. 3, in Lewes.

The bloodmobile was procured through a “pay for success” contract entered into by the groups named above, according to a press release.

According to BBD, the “social impact fund, worth $450,000,” is a groundbreaking pilot in Delaware, and the new bloodmobile is considered the first “pay for success” contract in Delaware.

The process began with a grant from Longwood, working through Discover Bank, which eventually turned the funding over to the DCF to create the DCF Social Impact Fund in 2017.

That in turn went to pay for the bloodmobile’s construction.

Jim Roszkowski, President for Discover Bank, said the bank was “honored” to partner with other agencies to provide Delaware with a program that will do much good for the community.

Last week’s event featured the stories of two blood recipients – T.J. Mitchell, 19, and Riley Jadick, 7– who illustrated the great need for a state of the art bloodmobile.

Mitchell is battling leukemia, has been multiply transfused with red blood cells and platelets, and is currently recovering from surgery.

Jadick is also battling leukemia and has also has received many units of red blood cells and platelets.

BBD president and New York Blood Center Enterprises president and CEO Christopher Hillyer called Jadick “an inspiration to us all.”

Lt. Governor Bethany Hall-Long, accompanied by Jadick during her remarks, said that as both a nurse and a mother, helping people like Jadick and Mitchell are what the day is about.

“It is about life sustaining programs that we put in place,” Hall-Long said. “I know as someone who has had family members who were saved by the Blood Bank after traumatic accidents and a mother and a brother who had cancer; I cannot say enough about the products of the Blood Bank. So, on behalf of Governor Carney, we are just so delighted to be here.”

Jadick also spoke, remarking on the number of kids just like her that are diagnosed with cancer, and every day kids who need blood, platelets and other blood products.

“The new bloodmobile will help make sure that the Blood Bank can continue to get all the blood donations they need to help everyone who needs blood,” Jadick said.

An emotional Haas recounted how Mitchell, who was diagnosed in April, has had 11 pints of blood and 15 bags of platelets.

“He is my hero,” she said. “And he is working very hard.”

She added that Mitchell calls Haas and her sister Tammy Jopp – who are both O Positive universal donors – his “blood warriors” for his future transplant needs,

“I want to thank everyone who donates because it is very, very important,” Haas said.

Haass and Jopp both donated blood at the new bloodmobile following the event.

NEW FUNDING MODEL

The multi-agency partnership provided the model and inspiration for passage of Senate Bill 242, co-sponsored by Senator Jack Walsh and Rep. Kim Williams, establishing pay for success contracts in the state of Delaware.

According to the bill detail, a “Pay for Success” contract is an agreement between a state agency and either a program intermediary or an investor, under which an investor will provide upfront capital to fund a service, program, or economic development initiative.

Under the new law, organizations carry out projects that are beneficial to the general public, among other things, with funding from an intermediary.

If the projects are successfully carried out, the state repays the intermediary.

Governor John Carney signed the bill into law in August 2018, describing it as an example of the “Delaware way” of doing business, according to BBD.

According to BBD spokesman Tony Prado, with the new bloodmobile now a part of mobile operations, BBD will work hard to increase donors ages 17 to 34 by 500 annually, for three straight years.

“Upon successfully hitting those benchmarks, Longwood Foundation will rebate the money to Discover Bank,” Prado said. “If BBD does not hit its marks, the rebate will be reduced accordingly, depending on how much the benchmarks are missed.”

Prado said the next scheduled mobile drive is at the Hockessin Athletic Club, 100 Fitness Way, Hockessin, on Monday, Oct. 7, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

He also noted that there is a focus on finding universal Type O donors.

“We are always asking O Positive and O Negative donors to give, because we have to keep those stocked for hospitals,” Prado said. “Sometimes other blood types become a need but … type O blood is the priority right now.”